FORGET THE 'BOYS, THERE'S A NEW "AMERICA'S TEAM" IN TOWN

The Univ. of TN (UT) women's basketball team has a
merchandising campaign, "perhaps unrivaled in women's
sports," with the tagline "Lady Volunteers, America's Team,"
according to a report in the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE.
Starter and adidas are among a "handful of companies"
licensed to sell the "America's Team" merchandise. UT
Women's Athletic Dir Joan Cronan, on the new effort: "I
can't put a dollars and cents figure on it. But I can tell
you our goal is to market a product in a very profitable
way." TN-based Bacon & Co. has been printing Lady Vols T-
shirts and memorabilia since the school's first title in
'87. Cory Moss, an official with Collegiate Licensing Co.,
on the rise of UT merchandise: "I think they are becoming
much more national. ... I can almost guarantee that the
number has doubled, tripled, maybe even quadrupled from the
amount of merchandise that those companies were producing a
year ago." Next week, 40,000 Smoky mascot dolls wearing
Lady Vols Championship T-shirts will arrive at TN-based
Wendy's restaurants (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 4/6).
MORE ORANGE: The Collegiate Licensing Co. (CLC)
announced that Syracuse Univ. is the newest member of its
consortium of colleges, conferences and bowl games (CLC).